Crime

Fargo Prosecutors Charge Man In Double Homicide

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FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A man accused in the deaths of two people in Fargo over the weekend told dispatchers as he waited for police to arrive that he stabbed his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend in her apartment, investigators said in court documents released Monday.

David Stevens, 35, is charged with two counts of murder in the early Saturday morning stabbing deaths of Samantha Wickenheiser, 23, of Fargo, and Ward Berg, 30, of neighboring Moorhead, Minn. Stevens was scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday afternoon.

Officers responded shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday to a report that a woman said she had been stabbed. As officers were arriving on the scene, Stevens told dispatchers over the phone that he stabbed the two victims and said Wickenheiser was “out in the parking lot dead,” according to court documents.

The bodies of Wickenheiser and Berg were found outside the apartment. Police said Wickenheiser had a serrated knife lodged in the left side of her head.

Police said that Wickenheiser was the mother of at least one of Stevens’ children.

Court documents show that the suspect’s wife, April Stevens, told police she and her husband drove from Brookings, S.D., late Friday because he said he wanted to pick up clothing from the apartment where he lived with his former girlfriend. David Stevens told dispatchers he had brought a knife with him for protection.

April Stevens said her husband got out of the vehicle after they arrived at the apartment. About two minutes later, she said, Wickenheiser, covered in blood, tried to get into the car. April Stevens told police later that the victim did not have a knife lodged in her head.

She said she drove out of the parking lot and parked in front of the building. She later flagged down an officer and told her that Wickenheiser had approached her car.

The officer found Wickenheiser in the parking lot north of the apartment. Berg’s body was discovered across the street. Police said vans in the parking lot that belonged by Wickenheiser and Berg each had a slashed tire.

David Stevens was taken to a hospital for a cut on his wrist and cuts on his legs, investigators said. He was then taken to the Fargo Police Department, where he told detectives he would not make a statement.

Court documents don’t list an attorney for Stevens.

The deaths were the second and third homicides in Fargo this year. Ronald Rogers was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to shooting and killing his wife, Elizabeth Rogers, in February.